


Safe Place to Fall

by Pixelatrix



Series: Universal Truth One-Shots: Darby & Wallace [5]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Drinking, F/M, Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-22
Updated: 2013-09-22
Packaged: 2017-12-27 09:07:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/976975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pixelatrix/pseuds/Pixelatrix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time that Wallace let Darby sleep on his couch.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Safe Place to Fall

**Author's Note:**

> Another Darby and Wallace one-shot.
> 
> One-shot attached to my Universal Truth story.
> 
> Bioware owns all.
> 
> Beta: CelticGrace
> 
> As always, I am open to smut prompts.

Surveying the Alliance officers and cadets gathered in the pub, Wallace didn’t spot the blonde head that he was looking for.  He didn’t begrudge the recruits their nights off, especially considering the fact that they’d all graduated successfully from boot camp.  He wandered over to one of the other women in the group.

“Where’s Shepard?” He asked once he got her attention.

Angela glanced up from her conversation with one of the instructors. “She left with Joe a while ago.  I think the pub is a little _too_ Alliance for their tastes.  They went to that new place down the street.   I was going to join them in a moment.”

With a nod to the young private, he headed out of the bar.  He’d received a message from Anderson about checking in to make sure that Shepard had somewhere to go.  They’d all become attached to the scrappy young woman.  She’d somehow managed to top the leader boards, get an education and turn into an impressive leader over the course of the last six months.

He found Joe drinking alone in the bar. “Where is she?”

“She stumbled out of here a few minutes ago.” Joe shifted uncomfortably.  He’d only just gotten out of the hospital, and would end up having to use a cane probably for the rest of his life thanks to Sam.  “She doesn’t like people to see her drunk.  It’s why she never sleeps it off in the barracks.”

Wallace didn’t like the sound of that. If she wasn’t sleeping it off in barracks, he knew that she didn’t have a place of her own.  Recruits weren’t exactly paid large sums of credits. _Where the hell was she going?_   “Where does she go?”

Joe looked _even more_ uncomfortable. “I don’t…”

He didn’t need to do much more than look…imposing…and Joe admitted to him that she tended to find somewhere on the streets to sober up.  She’d stay in all night café’s or parks to watch the sun come up.   Then she’d stumble back to the barracks for a hot shower and coffee. 

He didn’t know why she did it.  If Joe guessed, he thought that Shepard didn’t want her instructors to see her buzzed…or worse…drunk.  Wallace agreed with his assessment.  He’d talked to Anderson about it, and Darby seemed to have taken his comments about not wasting her chance to the extreme.

_Anderson was always too fucking serious for his own good._

The idea that _Blondie_ was slouched on a park bench didn’t sit well with Wallace. He left Joe to try to find her.  He stepped out of the bar and the sounds of a struggle caught his attention. He headed behind the bar to find two men struggling with a young woman. 

_Shepard._

She sent one of them flying with a biotic throw.  Wallace rushed forward to grab the second man off of her when the bastard caught her in the chin and she went down.  He grabbed him by neck and slammed him face first into the bricks of the nearby wall.  He let the man fall to the ground unconscious.  He slammed his elbow into the head of the second one who’d recovered from being tossed like a ragdoll.  He collapsed next to his partner.

Wallace turned to crouch down next to her.  “You ok, Blondie?”

She leaned up on her elbows to frown at him. “Fucking idiots.”

“Come on.” He lifted her up on her feet with eyes.  She swayed for a moment and he wrapped his arm around her waist to keep her up. “Let’s get you somewhere safe to sleep that off.”

“I’m fucking fine,” she muttered.

He ignored her attempts to walk away and led her towards his skycar.  She slouched down in the seat and dozed while he drove towards his apartment.  He’d never been fond of staying in the barracks.  He liked the privacy of owning his own place.

Darby went straight for the large couch in the living room the moment that he got them inside his quarters.  She struggled to kick her boots off without untying the laces.  Wallace shook his head with a sigh.  He wandered over to untie her laces and ease the shoes off of her feet.  He set them next to the couch.

“Don’t tell Anderson.”

Wallace frowned down at her. “Sleep it off, Blondie.”

She mumbled something that he missed and rolled on her side to face the cushions.  He draped a blanket over her.  He watched her sleep for a few minutes.  She didn't know that they'd grown up on the same streets. He knew the life that she'd likely had.  It was a hard one.  She should have a chance for something more.

The Alliance could provide that for her.  He just hoped that it wouldn't take the scrappy street kid out of her.  She'd need that to survive.  In the mean time, he'd try to make sure that she had somewhere to go the next time that she was out drinking.

* * *

_Confused._

It was the word to describe how Darby felt when she woke up the following morning.  She rolled on her back and stared up at an unfamiliar ceiling.  Sitting up, she pulled the blanket around her shoulders and got a better look around the room.  The clock on the wall told her that she was at least an hour past the time that she usually snuck back into the barracks.

_Fuck._

“Morning.”

She turned to find _Major_ Wallace stepping out of what she assumed was the kitchen with two cups of coffee.  She took the mug that he offered to her. “Sir?”

“We need to have a fucking talk, kid.” He bent over to lean on the back of the couch. “I don’t like the idea of you wandering around inebriated. It’s not fucking safe.”

“I can take care of myself, _Sir.”_ Darby had a vague recollection of what happened the night before.  She decided it would be wisest to stick to sipping her coffee.

“Listen.” Wallace tapped a finger against his cup for a moment. “I’m going to make breakfast, and we can talk about that.”

“No eggs.” Darby couldn’t take eating eggs early in the morning.

“No?” He was a silent for a moment.

“No.” She sipped more coffee. “Bacon and cheddar sandwich?”

He seemed to find that funny. With a laugh, he headed into the kitchen again.  Darby followed him after a moment.  He nodded towards a scrap of paper on the counter.  “That’s the code to my apartment.”

“Ok?”

“My couch is always open to you.” Wallace tossed a few pieces of bacon into a pan and told her to get the bread in the toaster. “Even if I’m not here, feel free to sleep on the couch whenever you need somewhere safe to sleep off the alcohol.”

“Why would I do that?” Darby asked.

“Because you’ve never had somewhere that you could always count on having a safe place to go,” Wallace said knowingly.  He stepped over to grab two pieces of toast to make her a sandwich. “The door is always open for you.  You don’t have to accept.”

“You’re an idiot,” she muttered.”

“Probably.”


End file.
